As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
During operation of an information handling system, numerous events may occur in which the available power from power supplies delivering electrical current to the information handling system and its components may decrease. To ensure effective operation of an information handling system after such a decrease in available power, it may be desired to reduce the power requirements (“throttle”) of one or more components of the information handling system, particularly such components that require higher levels of power during normal operation. When throttled, a component may enter a lower-power state in which it decreases functionality (e.g., processing and transfer of data at slower rates) but consumes less power.
Traditionally, throttling of information handling system components has been performed by software. However, software-based throttling often requires significant time between the time a throttling stimulus is received and a throttling occur due to processing overhead associated with software.